


A Newsworthy Day

by ericsonclan



Series: We are Monsters, We are Proud AU [23]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Interviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26393623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: A reporter comes to Ericson High. Some monsters are more excited about it than other.
Relationships: Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Renata & Sophie (Walking Dead: Done Running), Renata/Minerva (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: We are Monsters, We are Proud AU [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1699969
Kudos: 5





	A Newsworthy Day

**Author's Note:**

> (by Linnea)

Clementine let her head hit the table with a soft thud. A small sigh escaped her lips before turning her head to look at her brown bag lunch standing there ready to be eaten.

“Hey, Clem,” The cheery voice of the huldra caused Clemenetine to lift her head to see Renata sitting across from her. Perched on the spot next to her was Sophie.

“You look sad,” The harpy tilted her head with a concerned expression.

“It’s just…” Clem took a deep breath, “Louis isn’t here today. He had to leave early.”

“I can relate to that - I always feel down when Minnie isn’t here.” Renata smiled over at the human, her teeth poking out and shining brightly in the sun.

“Minnie’s never missed a day since you’ve been here,” Sophie glanced over at her friend, her hands blindly reaching for her fried worm sandwich. 

“No, but the idea makes me sad.” Renata countered with a huff.

“Anyway,” Sophie nibbled on her sandwich, “Why is Louis not here today? Is he sick?”

“No,” Clementine leaned back in her chair. “His dad gets overprotective and really uptight about any appearance Louis makes on any form of media.”

“What does that have to do with school?” Renata’s hand wandered over, trying to steal the other side of her friend’s sandwich only to get her hand swatted away. “Ow, Sophie!”

“Get your own sandwich, '' The harpy smirked over at the huldra and took an overly dramatic bite of her sandwich. 

“It’s because Ericson High is going to be on the news today,” Clementine’s statement caused the two friends to stop their friendly fight and look over with wide eyes.

“Really?” Renata’s tail curled into the shape of a question mark.

“Yeah, some news reporter just showed up like five minutes again.” Clementine stated in annoyance. 

Renata and Sophie shared a look, both of their eyes dancing with excitement. Without a word the duo stood up and ran off, Sophie tossing the rest of her sandwich in her mouth. Both of them giggled as they ran away. Clementine watched and let out a small groan. Once again she was left alone.

\----

“I’m here today at Ericson High, a local monster school, one of the few in the state of West Virginia.” A reporter with short brown hair and hazel eyes spoke as she gestured to the building behind her. “As you can see, monsters attend school just like any human does.” Her eyes looked around, scanning the area for a monster to talk to when her eyes locked on Brody who was strolling by, a small, content smile on her face while she hummed. “You there,”

“W-who, me?” Brody looked up with wide eyes at the reporter, her hands instinctively drawing her sealskin closer to her. 

“Yes, my name is Carley Porter from WABE. You mind if I ask you a few questions?” The reporter looked at the selkie who seemed alarmed and overwhelmed by the presence of cameras.

“Okay,” Brody whispered.

“Great,” Carley drew the selkie closer to her before looking back at the camera. “I’m here with a selkie that goes to Ericson High. What’s your name?” Carley held out the microphone in front of Brody whose mind was drawing a blank. 

“Bro….” The selkie didn’t finish the rest of her name; her brain wasn’t working, too overwhelmed by everything.

“Well, Bro, mind telling me how your experience has been at Ericson?” Carley had a warm smile on her face as she looked at the selkie.

While the interview was going on, two particularly lively monsters decided it was the perfect chance to play a game. Renata and Sophie stood by a tree with huge grins on their faces.

“Ready?” Renata looked up at her friend.

“Yep! I’m totally going to get more seconds than you,”The harpy had a confident smile on her face.

“Ha, we’ll see about that,” The huldra ran forward before her friend could counter her claim. Her feet dramatically overstepped as she strolled in the background shoot of the newsfeed while she flashed a funny face. Once she was across, she motioned for Sophie to start her turn. The harpy let out a faint chirp as she strode forward, her feet slowly crossing the walkway behind the reporter while she held out her feather covered arms and did jazz hands. The pair of friends continued to do this, becoming more bold and ambitious with each take. Renata tried to and succeeded to do the worm while Sophie walked by moving her arms like an egyptian. It didn’t take long, however, for the duo to become high on the thrill of their cheesy sense of humor and come up with an over-the-top plan. Sophie flew up slightly in the air, hovering over the huldra’s shoulder.

“A bit to the right and land,” Renata instructed as the harpy gently wrapped her talons around the huldra’s shoulders. Soon the two monsters were up in the air and gliding in the background shot of the news recording. Sophie smiled down at Renata who had a large, mischievous grin on her face. When the harpy looked up though, her expression changed. “Oh shit,” Sophie whispered as she saw Minnie flying towards them with an angry expression. It only took seconds for the twin harpies to collide and land on the grass outside of the news reporter’s shoot.

Sophie rubbed the back of her head as she got up, helping up Renata who was busy shaking her head to get the stray pieces of grass out of her ears.

“What do you think you two are doing?” Minnie hissed.

“Having a contest to see who can be on screen the longest,” Renata replied with a happy smile.

“Well, you should stop! This press could be good news for our school,” Minnie gestured over to the news reporter who was still too caught up in her interview with Brody to notice what was going on. 

“Okay,” Sophie mumbled, looking down guiltily. “We’ll stop. Right, Ren?”

“Yep, you have my word,” The huldra flashed a shameless grin. “We won’t be going across the background shot again.”

Minnie let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I need to find Mr. Bailey about something. So I’ll see you after lunch,” Minnie placed a small kiss on Renata’s cheek and gave her hand a quick squeeze before running off towards the building. Sophie and Renata watched the harpy for a minute until she was out of sight. 

“Well, what should we do for the rest of lunch?” Sophie looked over at her friend.

“Hmmm,” Renata placed a hand on her chin, her eyes scanning the area when they landed on Prisha who was reading a book underneath a large oak tree. “Follow me.” The duo made their way over to the vampire who glanced up from her book when she sensed their presence.

“Hey, Prisha,” Sophie gave a friendly wave.

“Hello,” Prisha closed her book “Did you need something?”

“Actually, I don’t know why we came over,” The harpy scratched the back of her head, looking to her friend for guidance.

“It’s true that vampires don’t have a reflection in the mirror, right?’ Renata’s question made the vampire raise an eyebrow.

“That’s correct.” Prisha stated simply.

“Is the same true about video cameras?” The huldra’s question made Sophie glance over at her with large eyes.

“Walking clothes!” The harpy exclaimed with an excited tweet.

“Excuse me?” Prisha looked confused.

“If you walked behind the reporter, would it just look like a hovering outfit?” Sophie asked, bouncing excitedly on her feet while her talons tapped the grass below.

“Perhaps,”

“That’s what we want to figure out. So, would you walk across the walkway over there?” Renata pointed with an enthusiastic grin. 

“I don’t see what I would gain from that,” The vampire stated and returned to her book.

“I have information about Vi that only I know!” Sophie blurted out. That made Prisha pause. “It’s good too!”

“How good?”

“Guess you’ll just have to walk and see,” A playful smile appeared on the harpy’s lips.

“Fine,” Prisha sighed and without waiting for the others walked behind the reporter then turned and walked back, stopping in front of them. “Happy?”

“Yes!” Renata smiled over at Sophie who seemed excited to watch the news to see if the vampire really did disappear. 

“Alright, as promised,” Sophie cleared her throat. “Violet likes belly rubs.”

“Really?” Prisha asked in surprise. 

“Apparently she does the whole foot tapping thing too, really gets into it.”

“Wait, how do you know this?” The vampire looked over at the harpy with skepticism. 

“It came up when we were cloud watching one day,” Sophie shrugged. “Talking about what information about our species was true and what was myth. She told me stuff like that and I told her things like how I peck like a bird when I get super nervous.”   
The smile on Sophie’s face immediately disappeared when she told that information. Not because she thought Prisha may have any use of that information but because of Renata.

Renata giggled behind her hand, her eyes practically sparkling with mischief.

“Renata,” Sophie warned, “Don’t you dare.”

“Oh ho! But where would the fun be in that?” The huldra slowly backstepped before turning around and sprinting away.

“Ren! Forget that information!” Sophie screamed as she raced after her friend, leaving the vampire alone with newfound information. 

\----

The next day rolled around and the excitement surrounding Ericson High was palpable. Different monsters were watching the news report on their phones during lunch, although not all of them were doing so for the same reasons. 

“Ten…. fifteen… eighteen!” Sophie counted and tapped on the screen to restart the video. “I’ve got eighteen seconds that I was behind the reporter. “That’s going to be hard to beat!”

“But I’m going to do it,” Renata tapped the play button, starting the video again. 

“Hey, you two,” Clementine walked over towards the table where the huldra and harpy were sitting, her hand happily intertwined with Louis’’. “Whatcha up to?”

“Seeing who’s gonna win a contest,” Sophie answered before turning her attention back to the screen. A few minutes passed when all of a sudden Renata jumped up onto her seat with an excited chattering noise. “Yes!” Renata pumped her fist in victory. 

“Alright, spill, Soph: Where is your secret bug stash?”

Sophie let out a sad chirp, her head falling in defeat. “Third tree behind the school. The one that looks like an old man. Can’t miss it.”

“Whoo!” Renata sat down with a satisfied sigh. 

“What’s this about a contest?” Louis looked over at the pair with curiosity. 

“Oh, we were just trying to see who could be in the background of the news report the longest,” Sophie lifted up her head.

“I wish I could’ve been part of that,” The frankenstein’s eyes disappeared sadly behind his dreadlocks. “But my dad wouldn’t let me.” Louis seemed pretty down when he felt Clementine’s hand give his a quick squeeze. Looking over he saw the warm,   
comforting smile on his girlfriend’s face which made him brighten up immediately. “But hey, at least I know Brody’s new nickname.”

Before any could ask what it was, they heard footsteps appearing closer behind them and turned to see Brody and Ruby walking towards the table.

“Please tell me you guys aren’t watching the news,” Brody placed down her tray with a sigh. “It seems no matter where I go I hear the interview where I was a complete idiot.” Brody face planted on the table. 

“Aww, Sug, It wasn’t bad. You were just nervous.” Ruby placed a reassuring hand on the selkie’s shoulder.

“Yeah, Ruby is right, Bro. I think you did great.” Louis flashed a grin over towards his friend. Brody looked up, about to tell him to not call her that, but when she saw the sincerity on the frankenstein’s face she didn't have the heart to stop him.

“Well, I hate to break it to you, Brody, but we are watching the news,” Sophie leaned over to look at the selkie. “But it’s just to see if Prisha disappears.”

“What do you mean ‘disappears’?” Clementine suddenly was invested in watching the news story.

“We asked her to walk behind the news reporter to see if she disappears like her reflection does in a mirror.” Renata replied then looked over to the harpy who was busy finding the right spot.

“Aha!” Sophie crowed. “Found the spot!” She held out her phone for everyone to see. All the monsters leaned forward to see the screen. As Sophie pressed play, sure enough, the moment that Prisha walked by she had disappeared. All that remained was her clothes that looked like they were hovering in midair as the vampire made her way across the screen.

“Holy shit, she really did disappear,” Clementine whispered in disbelief.

Renata and Sophie shared a happy look before high fiving, happy with their discovery. After a few minutes of animated chatter around the table, talk died down.

“Wanna see me and Soph do funny things while Brody was interviewed?” Renata looked around the group of friends with an excited grin. After a mixed response to the question the group of monsters watched the news report again. None of them even paid attention to the selkie’s interview but instead laughed at all the hijinks and shenanigans that the harpy and huldra had pulled off. It was a fun lunchtime, but then again things were never boring at Ericson High.


End file.
